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Elegant flavours
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Herbs & Spice has a superb menu of European cuisine with tried and tested recipes from across the Continent
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PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
TO THE POINT Herbs & Spice offers a varied fare in a no-fuss ambience
There are many restaurants that are all frills and no substance, and there are some few that have no frills because the food speaks for itself. From the moment you enter Herbs & Spice in Indiranagar, you realise that this restaurant is the latter kind.
Tucked away in a small corner off C.M.H. Road, this five-year-old restaurant can easily be mistaken for one of the many houses that surround it. Nothing but a modest board outside even lets you know that it is there. Enter it, and the same minimalism greets you inside too. The walls are mostly plain white, and only one fascinating photograph adorns them, besides a chalkboard that announces the day's menu. "The idea was always to be simple and direct," says proprietor Manjit Singh. "We don't want to beat around the bush."
Rich food
But when that food arrives, you can see that the minimalism doesn't extend to it. The recently expanded menu offers customers some of the best of French, Italian, British, Spanish and sometimes American cooking. The menu, which changes every other day, is primarily made up of classic recipes that have been tried and tested across Europe.
The restaurant has classic examples of items that have worked. Their newly included soups and salads, for example, offer customers choices that most other restaurants wouldn't. One of the salads for the day is a mixed lettuce, figs and fresh mozzarella salad, while the soups include a pleasant roasted tomato and pepper soup. The soup, which hints at spice without overpowering the palate, is an especially nice change from most others that are either very spicy or tasteless.
For the main course, the usual fast movers are the pastas, the quiche and the steaks. The quiche, which is usually made of bacon or mushroom and spinach has been so popular, that either one has been on the menu everyday since the restaurant started. The steak on offer for the day is called grilled beef spirals. Slender strips of succulent beef are marinated in a mixture of sun dried tomato pesto and basil pesto, grilled and rolled into disks. As the pesto mixture is the only flavouring agent, the grilled beef spirals really let you savour the taste of the meat itself. The fusilli with basil pesto is another interesting dish. Here, the hot pasta is simply tossed up with the pesto and served. At first, the dish seems bland and flavourless, particularly to Indian tongues used to strong mixtures of chillies, garam masala and so on. As you get accustomed to the taste of the basil, however, something that is heavily influenced by the texture of the pesto itself, it grows on you. Another great innovation is the four-cheese pizza, which is a light thin crust topped with nothing but four kinds of cheese, mozzarella, gorgonzola, peccorino and parmesan. For those wanting a slightly spicier option, the arabiatta is a good choice. The main courses include a wide range of other preparations, primarily French and Italian, for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
The dessert menu is just as mouth-watering. The most preferred item is the eggless chocolate cake, made of thick, rich chocolate, and flavoured generously with walnuts. But easily one of the best new desserts is the chocolate fondant, a baked mousse served with vanilla ice cream. Made freshly after you order, it is crumbly on the outside and exquisitely creamy on the inside. Other great choices are the meringues and the pavlova with kiwi and strawberry. The restaurant also bakes a wide range of breads including baguettes, multi-grain and whole-wheat, focaccia, ciabatta and banana bread, which can be purchased there.
Another feature that makes Herbs & Spice really special is the personalised touch in everything. The two proprietors themselves handle the kitchen and know all the regulars on a personal basis. It is this touch that makes the restaurant comfortable, almost like dining at home.
Herbs & Spice is located at 221, 7th Cross, 1st Stage, Indiranagar, and can be contacted on 25290399.
RAKESH MEHAR
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